The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-11-17
THE WA-BEMBE.
An Interesting Tribe of Africans-They ey
Prefer Death to Slavery.

THE WA-BEMBE.
An Interesting Tribe of Africans-They
Prefer Death to Slavery.
| Every now and then some mission
AIRY or explorer in Africa reports the
: discovery of some interesting tribe
! that has never been heard of before.
! Though Africa has been overrun in all
directions, there are extensive regions
between the tracks of travellers that
are still unknown, and remarkable in
formation often rewards the first
VIII lite man who visits them. Father
Josef. a Catholic missionary, who
lives west of Lake Tanganyika, has
just sent home an account of All in
teresting people of whom Livingstone.
Cameron, Stanley, Thompson, and
other travellers never heard, though
they all. doubtless, saw the mountains
on which this tribe have made their
| homes.
The Wa-Bembe, Father Josef says,
inhabit chain of mountains some dis
tauce west of the great Lake Tangan-
yika. The country around them has
for years been overrun by Arab slave
and ivory dealers, but the Wa-Bembe
have never met them. 1t has been
their deliberate purpose to avoid all
contact with the Mohammedan ele-
ment. and this difficult policy has been
successfully carried out.
| Dividing their tribe into clans, the
mountaineers have built their villages
upon the lOftiest and most precipitous
| parts of the chain of mountains they
inhabit. They sternly forbid all
strangers from climbing their sum-
nlits. When they have become well
| acquainted with individuals of other
| tribes they permit their visits, but
they allow no party of men to ascend
their mountains, and they will have
nothing to do with natives whom they
| suspect of holding relations with the
| Arabs or with the Waugwanas, a tribe
that has been converted to Islamism.
| They devote themselves to the culture
of the soil, and their mountains are
the granary of the northwest coast of
| the lake.
Sometimes they descend into the
plain to exchange the products of their
| fields for the iron lances and axes
| made by the natives of Uvira.
These visits are very brief. Then
| they visit the mission stations to get
| cloth in exchange for the provisions
they bring. They always reach the
| stations at nightfall. and as soon as
their business is transacted they at
| once refrace their steps To their noun
/ tain homes. They have grown la have
confidence in the missionaries, and
their chiefs have at last consented to
receive white men on their mountains
who go there To buy food.
1t must not be thought that the Wa
Bembe take pleasure in TINS isolating
themselves from the world around
them. They keep all men at arms
length because they know the misery
that the Arab slave-dealers have in
fiicted upon scores of hapless villages.
| They are determined 10 die rather
than be enslaved, and in their noun
lain faSIheSs they are able. through
their bravery and superior position, to
| keep themselves free and independent.
They bitterly hate all Mohammedans,
and want all persons of that faith to
let them severely alone. Their self
imposed restraints are CALLING never
theiess. and they would like to be
able to move more freely around the
country.
A little while ago one of the chiefs
| visited Father Josset'S mission station.
1 w "Otllu bhC- stu iit- " Dc Lu6
| children of the whites. The situation
in which we live is very unpleasant.
! We are obliged To till our fields with
the hoe in one hand and the spear in
the other If the whites would only
induce the Arabs and their native
| friends to let us alone the present
situation would cease. We would then
work in our fields without fear, and
we would gladly supply our white
friends aud their children with food.
We would bring you, not as to-day,
little bundles of food that children can
carry. but big loads under whose
weight even men would fall.
The missionaries told the chief that
they looked upon the Wa-Bembe as
their children, and that they would at
the first opportunity intercede with the
Arabs IN their behalf. 1t is to be
feared that they will not be able to
make much impression upon the cruel
siaye-drivers, who kill without mercy
all the natives who oppose their
crimes.
Father Josef SAYS the Wa-Bembe
are q numerous people, and the
mountains where they dwell fairly
swarm with human beings. A native
| WnOm Cn6 missionaries SenG 10 Inc
mountain homes of this people re-
turned with the statement that men
were as thick on the mountain slopes
as blades of grass on the plain, and
that some of their villages along the
ridges were three miles in length.
Here is q tribe that at one of the
very head fountains of the Arab slave
trade have maintained the spirit of
freedom. They have kept arms in
their hands. determined to resist to the
bitter end all attempts to reduce them
to bondage. Their courage and the
natural stronghold which they defend
have made them formidable, and in
the pure air of their mountain homes
they are multiplying and strengthen
ing, while the tribes around them,
blighted by the Arab invasion, are
wasting away.-Neto York San.